Ending the Myth That Africans Sold Their Own Into Slavery

Royal Politics has conducted research challenging the widely repeated claim that “Africans sold their own people” during the transatlantic slave trade. Our research shows that many African communities resisted enslavement by fortifying settlements, concealing villages, relocating to difficult terrain, rescuing captives, restricting contact with slave traders, and fighting raiders. It also examines how European archival records often documented the final transfer of captives while obscuring the kidnapping, warfare, coercion, forced displacement, and organized resistance that occurred before people reached the coast. The historical evidence supports a more accurate conclusion: African communities broadly resisted enslavement, while the transatlantic racial chattel-slavery economy preyed upon vulnerable societies and transformed violence and captivity into a global commercial system.

For further reading, see:

Brian K. Burwell, Ending the Narrative That “Africans Sold Their Own”: Resistance, Coercion, Archival Bias, and the Transatlantic Racial Chattel-Slavery Economy (2026), Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21327238.